Women's Track & Field

Lyons win pair of events, notch two NCAA marks at Dartmouth Relays

Jan 10, 2010

HANOVER, NH- The Wheaton College women's track & field team
opened its season by taking third at the nine-team Dartmouth
College Relays on Sunday in Leverone Field House, while the Lyon
men tied for sixth. Wheaton's women scored 27 points, bettering
Division I Harvard University by one point, while the men tallied
20 points to match Keene State College. The hosts won both
competitions.

Sophomore Cailean Robinson (Newton, MA/Phillips Exeter
Academy) met a provisional standard for the NCAA
Championship while playing a role in one of the men's team's two
event victories, and classmate Mickey Jusme (Providence,
RI/Classical) met an NCAA standard on the women's
side.

After running to a time of 6.99 in the preliminary round of the
60-meter dash, Robinson reached the NCAA cut by clocking in at 6.93
during the semifinals, good for second among 16 athletes and just
0.01 seconds behind a runner from Dartmouth. Robinson did not run
in the finals. Junior Raiyan Banaji (Mumbai, India/American
School of Bombay) also made it to the 60M semifinals,
where his time of 7.09 was just 0.04 ticks away from getting him
through to the championship race.

During the 4x200-meter relay, Robinson led off for a victorious
Wheaton quartet, which paced a 10-team field in 1:29.43, just 0.30
seconds short of a school record. Seniors Mark Cimino
(Danbury, CT/Danbury) and Merzudin Ibric (Revere,
MA/Phillips Academy) and junior Mark Williamson
(Vienna, VA/James Madison) also each ran legs.
Additionally, the Lyons' second 4x200M relay foursome took sixth
while besting three colleges' top teams. Sophomores Miles
Ketchum (South Lee, MA/Monument Mountain Regional) and
Kyle Ricci (Warwick, RI/Bishop Hendricken) and
freshmen Brandon Holmes (Highland Mills,
NY/Monroe-Woodbury) and Cecil Jeffrey (Framingham,
MA/Rivers School) combined for the performance.

Ibric, Ricci and Williamson later sided with junior
Colin Fahey (Waltham, MA/Weston) to capture the
4x400-meter relay in a time of 3:23.18, topping a 13-team
field.

Jusme met a provisional mark during the triple jump, as she took
second in that event with a distance of 37' 3" while also finishing
as the runner up during the long jump at 17' 6 3/4", good for the
best distance among college athletes. Jusme also ran for the
fifth-place 4x200-meter relay foursome, which finished in 1:47.36
to fall just 0.30 ticks short of third. Junior Laurenmaria Smith (Providence, RI/Hope), sophomore Lauren Cardarelli (Cranston, RI/La Salle Academy) and freshman
Amanda Claflin (Pembroke, MA/Pembroke) also ran
legs.

Smith was 0.08 seconds shy of an NCAA time during the 60-meter
dash while turning in a preliminary-round showing of 7.93. During
the semifinals she fell 0.07 ticks shy of making the finals. Jusme
also qualified for the semifinals.

The Lyons sent a pair of combined-event athletes to the meet, as
junior Meagan Jennett (Charlottesville, VA/Western
Albemarle) and sophomore Didine Jusme (Providence,
RI/Classical) were seventh and eighth, respectively,
during the pentathlon.

Both teams are in action next week at the University of Rhode
Island's Sorlien Invitational. The women's meet is Friday at 12:00
p.m., while the men's is Saturday at 12:00 p.m.